When Your On Page SEO Goes Too Far

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of enhancing your web site with the goal of increasing your visibility in the top search engines when specific keywords or phrases are searched for. Every web site that wants to be found in the organic search results of engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask and the like need to incorporate some type of SEO strategy. Some take it to far though as in an example I recently found with a national computer services chain.

I could pull several examples from their site but I think I’ll use the one that I found on a page representing their Anthem, Arizona location, the place I call home. Everything above the fold looks fine. The phone number is prominent with a physical address beneath along with a Yahoo! map. To the right is a nice picture of the storefront with a couple of their repair vehicles parked in front. Also included is their operating hours, a short description of the services they provide and a coupon offering a free computer check up. All good information to show “above the fold.”

However, scroll down past the fold and this is what you see (emphasis is mine):

We also perform Anthem data recovery, New River data recovery, North Phoenix data recovery, Desert Hills data recovery and Black Canyon data recovery and can get data back even in the worst of situations. Our Anthem data recovery, New River data recovery, North Phoenix data recovery, Desert Hills data recovery and Black Canyon data recovery facilities have experienced technicians that can get your data back, even when others have failed! Contact this store to talk with our Anthem data recovery, New River data recovery, North Phoenix data recovery, Desert Hills data recovery and Black Canyon data recovery specialists now. People who need Anthem data recovery, New River data recovery, North Phoenix data recovery, Desert Hills data recovery and Black Canyon data recovery call on us every day to help get them back on track because we’re the experts. Put the Anthem data recovery, New River data recovery, North Phoenix data recovery, Desert Hills data recovery and Black Canyon data recovery team to work for you when you have a crisis!

Does this sound ridiculous or what? What if an actual salesperson was to use all these various phrases when answering the phone? “Good afternoon, and thank you for calling (company name withheld), offering Anthem computer repair, New River computer repair, North Phoenix computer repair, Desert Hills computer repair and Black Canyon computer repair.” You’d probably hang up, right? And yet isn’t a web page a kind of sales tool? Of course it is!

This is what we call optimizing content using a very “unnatural language.” Sure it may help them to get ranked for all these various phrases but at what cost? If your web pages cannot convert visitors customers, but instead drives them away because of ridiculous content like this, then your SEO efforts are in vain. How many people do you think will actually read through this content who have no knowledge of what SEO is? Sure it is obvious to a search marketer such as myself that they are stuffing keyword phrases into the content as part of their “bad” SEO strategy , but most people have no knowledge of what SEO is. They would simply view this as very bad copywriting.

How should this content read if it were optimized, but written in a “natural language?” How about this:

(Name of company) in Anthem is standing by ready to help with all your Anthem computer repair needs. We provide outstanding customer service in our computer repair facility. In addition to our award winning computer repair & service, we provide data backup services, home networking and can custom build your next PC. Our customers have trusted us for all their computer repair & service needs since 1988.

We also perform data recovery and can get data back even in the worst of situations. Our Anthem data recovery facilities have experienced technicians that can get your data back, even when others have failed. Contact this store to talk with our specialists now. People who need data recovery call on us every day to help get them back on track because we’re the experts. Put the Anthem data recovery team to work for you when you have a crisis.

Keep in mind that we also serve other areas of North Phoenix including New River, Desert Hills and Black Canyon City.

This content makes much more sense and is more likely to convert which is much more important than ranking well. If they really want to rank for all those phrases, they should build out a page for each geographical area and make sure each contains content that is somewhat unique.

This is a reminder that when employing an SEO strategy, it is important to keep your visitors in mind. While it is necessary to have good visibility in the search engines, it is even more important to be able to convert the users that do end up visiting your site into paying customers.

You probably want to know who this national computer services company is, but I’m not telling. However, throw a few snippets of their content that I provided above into a Google search query box and it should be easy enough for you to discover who it is.

David Wallace, co-founder and CEO of SearchRank, is a recognized expert in the industry of search and social media marketing. Since 1997, David has been involved in developing successful search engine and social media marketing campaigns for large and small businesses. Follow +David Wallace on Google + as well as Twitter.